The Falling Star
by cassiefray93
Summary: Upon returning to NY after 12 years, Clary meets Jace who she later finds is a high school student by day and secret agent by night. Why is her mother involved in his latest mission? What was it that forced them to flee twelve years ago? Rated M for language and lemons.
1. Pasts and Beginnings

**Disclaimer: The Mortal Instruments is owned by Cassandra Clare. I don't own anything except for the plot of The Falling Star. I'm just messing around and having fun with the characters.**

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><p><em>October 10th 1999<em>

"Mommy, do we really have to go to the park with the Frays? I wanted to play with some friends from school, not babysit little Clary," a small blond-haired boy tugged on his mother's shirt as he whined.

"Why don't you invite those friends of yours to come along?" Celine Herondale told her son while she continued to pack a picnic for the two families.

"It won't be the same," the boy grumbled, folding his arms across his chest.

"Why not? I thought you liked to play with Clary."

"Of course I do. She's my friend." The boy rolled his eyes.

"Then I don't see why you can't spend the day with all of them."

Celine packed the last of the food into the picnic basket before kneeling down so that she was at eye level with her six-year-old son.

"Why don't you tell me what's really wrong, Jace?" she asked softly as she stroked his messy blond hair gently.

Jace gazed momentarily into her eyes before looking down at his feet. "Meliorn and Gabriel keep laughing at me because Clary is always following me around whenever we play."

"Well, maybe you can tell Clary that you don't want her to follow you around while you're playing with other people. I'm sure she'll understand and find something else to do."

"Really?" he asked uncertainly.

Celine nodded.

Jace brightened up instantly. "Okay! I'll go ask them to join us at the park!"

Celine ruffled his hair affectionately before he sped off in the direction of the landline. His smile was exactly the same as his father's.

T.F.S*

"Jace! Over here!"

Jace turned his head automatically in the direction of the voice. A small red-haired girl bounced excitedly on the balls of her feet as she smiled and waved at him.

He couldn't help but smile at her enthusiasm at seeing him.

With Celine's permission, he ran over to the little girl and embraced her in a quick hug.

"Hello, little Clary. Did you miss me?"

Clary nodded vigorously, her green eyes sparkling with happiness.

"I missed you too," he said softly, holding her hand and leading her over to the edge of the woods adjacent to the park.

"Don't go too far out, Jace!" Stephen Herondale called out to his son from where he was setting up the picnic blanket.

Jace nodded back in acknowledgment before turning his attention back to the girl beside him.

She was very pretty for a four-year-old girl. Her long red curls framed her chubby cheeks perfectly and her green eyes captivated everyone in a ten foot radius when she smiled.

Jace could hardly bear to tell her that he didn't want her around when his friends are around.

They walked silently along the edge of the woods, enjoying the slight breeze.

Just as Jace summoned the courage to tell her the words, the sounds of his friends calling him over reached his ears.

He sighed and ran his fingers through his hair in frustration. He tugged his other hand away from hers and headed back without a backward glance at her.

Clary stared at him in confusion for a few seconds before following after him like she always did.

"Hey, Jace let's go trekking in the woods! We can have an adventure, just the three of us. Your girlfriend is not invited," Meliorn put his arm around Jace's shoulders and jerked his head in the direction Clary was standing.

"Dad! Can I go?" Jace pointed to the woods as he gave an angelic smile.

Stephen eyed the woods, worry evident in his expression. "Don't stray off the path all right? And return here before night falls!"

"I will," Jace promised as he high-fived his two pals. After swiping some finger sandwiches from the picnic basket, Jace ran after his friends who'd already set off into the moderate canopy of trees.

Clary eyed the forest warily. Her mother told her never to run off into the forest by herself. She walked hesitantly toward the trees.

"Clary! Where do you think you're going?"

Clary spun around immediately, her face flushing at getting caught.

Luke Garroway knelt down in front of her so that she wouldn't have to crane her neck just to look at him.

"Jace ran off into the woods," she mumbled, not meeting his eyes.

"Why didn't he wait for you?" he asked, tilting her chin up so that she had to look into his eyes.

Clary shrugged. "Can I go?"

Luke eyed the forest warily. He wasn't sure if it was safe for a four-year-old girl to venture off alone there, even if she did stick to the path.

He waved to catch the girl's mother's attention and gestured at Clary before pointing at the forest.

Is Jace there? Jocelyn mouthed back. Being friends since they were kids, they had perfected the art at these silent conversations.

Luke nodded.

Jocelyn nodded in return and returned to her interrupted conversation with Celine.

Clary smiled triumphantly upon seeing Luke's expression.

"Be safe okay? Follow the marked path and don't ever stray off it," he told her sternly.

She nodded solemly and drew a cross across her heart.

Satisfied with her answer, Luke kissed her cheek and ruffled her hair affectionately. "Off you go then."

With that, Clary half skipped and half ran into the woods after Jace.

"Jace! Where are you?" she called once she entered the woods. There was no sign of the boys anywhere.

Taking a deep breath, she ventured along the path alone.

T.F.S*

It took her almost ten minutes, but Clary finally found them having a bite at one of the benches under a shelter.

"Jace! I thought I said no girlfriends allowed?" she heard the dark-haired boy saying angrily as he pointed at her.

She stopped walking immediately and looked at Jace who had spun around the moment he heard the tinkling bells from the ankle bracelet on her left ankle. She saw him run his fingers through his hair in frustration so she defended him automatically.

"He didn't ask me to come," she said.

The dark-haired boy — Meliorn — sneered at her. "Well too bad for you because we aren't inviting you along."

"Jace doesn't mind me being here," Clary replied, undeterred by Meliorn's tone.

"Really?" The other boy spoke up for the first time since Clary appeared. "Let's ask him, shall we?"

Jace hesitated for a moment before turning away. "Go away, Clary. I don't want you here anymore than my friends do."

Clary's eyes widened in surprise. She had hung around him before when his friends were around, but he'd never asked her to leave or expressed any indication that he didn't want her around. His reaction to her being around him confused her.

The bells on her ankle jingled when she took a step toward him.

Jace stood up suddenly and strode over to her. "Go back, Clary! Stop hanging around me like suffocating drapes!"

She blinked, taken aback by his outburst. She didn't know what suffocating meant, but she understood his first sentence well enough. Tears welled up in her eyes.

_Jace doesn't like me anymore._

She bit her lip to hold back her tears, refusing to let Jace see her cry. She spun around without further ado and walked back the way she came.

Even from where he'd been standing, Jace could see the unshed tears in her eyes. Guilt tore at his heart, gnawing at his insides, making him feel even more terrible with each passing second.

Everything inside him screamed at him to run up to her and apologize but he couldn't. His popularity at elementary school was at stake here. He couldn't afford to throw it away for some girl even if she was his best friend.

He clenched his fists and watched her walk away until he couldn't see her silhouette anymore.

T.F.S*

"Is Jace still coming over tonight? He's usually here by now," Jocelyn asked her daughter who was sitting on the couch, a bowl of chocolate ice cream in her hands.

Clary shrugged. "I don't think he's coming."

"Why not?"

Clary shrugged again.

Jocelyn was about to say something but the doorbell interrupted her.

"Jace must be here! I'll let him in," she told her daughter and made to get up from the beanbag she was sitting on but Clary stood up so suddenly that she startled her.

"I'll get it."

She left the bowl of half-eaten ice cream on the coffee table and made her way to the door. She stood on tiptoes to reach the door knob and yanked as hard as she could, stumbling a little when the door opened.

Jace stood anxiously on her front porch step with an overnight bag slung casually over his shoulder.

"What are you doing here?" she asked as she folded her arms across her chest.

"What does it look like I'm doing? I came to stay for the night like I always do after these family outings we have," he shrugged nonchalantly.

"Well, you're not welcome anymore, Jace." Clary turned to go back inside her house, struggling to fight her tears again. She was glad that he came back to her because she'd been convinced by his tone and words that he suddenly just didn't like her anymore, but his hurtful words kept replaying over and over in her head. Seeing him in front of her made it seem like he was saying those words to her again.

Jace panicked when she turned her back to him. He couldn't bear to lose his best friend over words that were utter lies. He grabbed her wrist impulsively, spun her around and threw his other hand around her.

"Don't. Don't walk away from me," he murmured.

Clary bit her lip hard to hold back her tears. She didn't hug him back even though she wanted to. "Why not?"

"Because I shouldn't have said those words to you even if they were bullshit."

"Bullshit?" Clary echoed, not understanding that word.

"Aww crap. Forget that word, little Clary. I meant that I didn't mean the words I said to you earlier."

"Really?"

Jace nodded and subsequently realised that she couldn't see him so he replied affirmatively.

Clary sighed and hugged him back.

Jace smiled, stepping back a little to plant a kiss on her forehead. All was forgiven.

T.F.S*

"Why did you say those words to me?" Clary angled her face up so that she could look into his golden eyes.

The two children were lying side by side on Clary's bed, facing each other.

Jace shifted uncomfortably on his side of the bed. He glanced at her quickly before turning over so that his back was flat against the bed and threw one arm over his eyes. His other hand was at his side, his palm flat on the bed.

"Gabriel and Meliorn will kick me out of the popular group if I don't do as they say. They don't like having you around when we play so..." he trailed off.

_Popular_? Clary was not familiar with that word. "Is being part of that group important?" She boldly used the word 'important' which she had learnt in elementary school a few days prior to the outing that day.

"Yes," Jace answered without any hesitation.

Clary nodded even though he couldn't see her.

She grasped his hand which was lying next to her on the bed tightly and squeezed her eyes shut. "Turn the night light off, Jace," she whispered.

Jace dropped his hand in surprise and turned his head to look at her. "But you never sleep with it off."

"I'm not scared of the dark if you're here with me," she said truthfully.

Jace smiled, though she couldn't see it. He turned the light off and brushed his lips across her forehead gently. "Goodnight, Clary."

T.F.S*

_October 17th 1999_

"Carousel!" Clary shouted excitedly from the backseat of the car.

Luke and Jocelyn chucked at her excitement as they helped her out of the babyseat.

"Where are we supposed to meet the Herondales again?" Luke asked as he locked his car.

"Celine said that she'll be next to the bumper cars," Jocelyn replied and smiled at the sight of Luke ruffling Clary's hair. Whoever married him would be one hell of a lucky woman, she thought.

"Wanna ride the bumper cars, Clary?" Luke asked as he picked her up and set off toward it.

"Don't give her any ideas," Jocelyn admonished.

"Carousel!" she pointed to somewhere in the near distance.

Luke threw Jocelyn a look before they nodded in agreement. "Carousel it is then!"

Luke brought her over to the ride near the entrance of the amusement park and Jocelyn headed north toward the bumper cars. There wasn't any queue for the ride so he quickly lifted her effortlessly onto one of the unoccupied horses before more people decided to show up.

Halfway through the ride, Jocelyn caught Luke's attention and waved him to go over. Luke glanced at Clary worriedly before walking over to the attendant and telling him to let Clary go on a second ride before dashing over to the bumper cars.

Clary didn't even realise that Luke was gone until the first ride was over. She insisted to get off the horse even though the ride attendant told her that Luke asked her to go on another ride.

"Luke!" she shouted, looking around for the man who was more like a father to her than just the childhood friend of her mother. She wanted to wander off to find him but his words echoed loud and clear in her head. _Never move away from where you are when you think you're lost._

She swept her bangs away from her face in annoyance before sitting down on the pavement next to the carousel and played with the bells on her anklet.

"Clary! Clary! Where are you?"

Clary stumbled to her feet immediately when she heard that voice.

"Luke! Over here!" she called back. She craned her neck upward to search for that familiar shade of medium brown hair and sapphire blue eyes.

She ran up to him the moment she saw him. Luke hadn't noticed her at first, but somehow over the mass of people and music, he heard the rhythmic jingles from the ankle bracelet she wore as she ran over to him. Relief flooded his veins instantaneously when he saw the red-haired little girl dashing over to him.

He dropped down on one knee and caught the girl in his arms, crushing her to him in a tight hug.

"You left!" Clary accused him as she wound her arms in a strangle hold around his neck.

"Where did you go? I couldn't find you when I came back."

"I couldn't find you when the ride ended so I sat there," she pointed at the place where she'd been sitting for a while, "and waited for you to come back. Why did you go away?" Clary sniffled as she tried to hold back tears.

"I'm so sorry, Clary," Luke murmured into her ear. "I promise you, I will never leave you while you're on a ride again."

Clary nodded and wiped her nose on the back of her hand.

"Okay, now let's go find your mommy and Jace."

T.F.S*

Clary saw Jace at the entrance of the park as she and Luke neared the bumper cars. She wanted to run over and say 'hi', but she caught sight of his two friends next to him. No, Jace wouldn't like it at all if she went near him now.

Much to Luke and Jocelyn's surprise, Clary didn't run off to Jace the moment Luke set her down on the floor. Instead, she climbed nimbly onto one of the benches nearby and sat down to look other people who were playing.

Thinking that the two friends must have gotten into a fight or something along those lines, Jocelyn decided to create an opportunity for her daughter to talk to him so they could patch things up.

She walked over to Clary and handed her a bottle of sunblock. "Pass this to Jace for me, will you?"

Clary looked apprehensively at the bottle and back at Jace who was still at the amusement park entrance with his friends. At her mother's nod of encouragement, she took the bottle from her and went toward Jace.

"Jace!" she shouted from a distance away.

Jace froze when he heard her voice. _Darn_, he thought. _Didn't I make it clear to her not to hang around me when Merliorn and Gabriel are here?_

"Jace? What in the world is your little girlfriend doing here? I thought I made it clear that we don't like her around!" Merliorn yelled in annoyance.

"Words just doesn't do it for him, Meliorn," Gabriel said, cracking his knuckles somewhat menacingly.

"Wait! Gabriel, what are you planning to do?" Jace asked, looking at the little girl anxiously.

"Jace!" Clary said happily when she neared the group of boys.

"This," Gabriel said, striding toward Clary, "is what we do to people who obviously don't take us seriously." He grabbed Clary's shoulders roughly and shoved her so that she stumbled a little.

"Hey!" Clary shouted in indignation. "Why are you —"

Before she could finish her sentence, Meliorn shoved her back seemingly hard. Clary stumbled again and nearly dropped the bottle of sunblock she was holding.

The two boys looked over at Jace expectantly with an expression that clearly said: do it or you're out.

Jace looked at his friends and then at Clary, clearly wracked with indecision. When Clary looked at him with no obvious intent of leaving, he made up his mind.

"Jace, my mommy said —"

At that moment, Jace pushed her aside. Hard.

Totally unprepared for his assault, Clary stumbled, tripped over her own feet and went sprawling onto the rough gravel.

Shock. Surprise. Pain. Tears. Clary blinked at the ground as if wondering why it was so close to her face. After a moment, she shifted herself so that she was in a sitting position instead of lying awkwardly on the ground. Pain flooded her nerves from her palms and knees. She had never expected Jace to do such a thing. Never. Not in a million years. Weren't they supposed to be friends?

Someone near her gasped. Jace, maybe? She recognized his shoes from a foot away, where she sat.

"Clary, I —" he started to say but stopped abruptly when he saw the look on her face. That look clearly said: _it's over_.

Clary rolled the bottle of sunblock in his direction where it hit his shoe and stopped. Then, she lifted herself off painfully from the ground. Without a backward glance, she limped back the way she came, tears streaming down her face.

She was sobbing quite loudly by the time she reached the bumper cars, which immediately caught Jocelyn and Luke's attention.

"Oh God. Clary, what happened?" Luke ran over immediately, Jocelyn right behind him.

The grazes on her palms and elbows looked a lot worse than the scrapes on her knees.

Clary shook her head and continued to sob.

"Luke, get the car. We're going home," Jocelyn said after a hurried goodbye to Celine and Stephen Herondale.

T.F.S*

After she was patched up by Jocelyn, Clary sat with her knees crossed on the bed and removed the ankle bracelet she wore with clumsy fingers. Seeing it up close brought tears to her eyes again. She shook her head and sniffled. Carefully, she placed it into a small box she had prepared earlier which was already filled with an assortment of items like birthday cards, a tiara and a set of vampire fangs.

She pushed the box aside and lay down on the bed, careful not to put pressure on her palms. She could smell a light jasmine scent from the pillow she lay on. Jace's pillow.

She couldn't stop the tears that formed this time. Wiping them away quickly with the back of her hands, she stripped the pillow of its case and stuffed it into the box with the other items. Then, she did the one thing she never thought she'd do. She slept. Without the night light on.

T.F.S*

_October 23rd 1999_

"Her name must be bigger than mine! And written in pink frosting!" Little Jace instructed his baker while looking at a plain white cake prepped for decorating.

"Yes, young master," the baker nodded dutifully, holding out his hand to one of the rookie cooks for the piping bag.

Jace nodded back when he was satisfied that the baker knew exactly what he wanted. He strutted off to the multi-purpose room and inspected the handiwork of his decorations team. The ceiling was covered with black and silver helium balloons and the same colored ribbons donned the four walls.

Board games were stacked neatly in one corner of the room, opposite from the long table which had been placed for the snacks. At another corner of the room sat three TVs with 6 video game controllers already set up.

"Perfect!" he exclaimed, smiling widely.

Next, he went out to the backyard and followed the path till he reached somewhere in the woods where there was a small creek and pretty wildflowers grew. A smile appeared on his face when he remembered how Clary's jaw had dropped when he showed her that such a place existed right on the Herondale land, and how she'd smiled when she sat down on one of the large rocks around the creak and plucked a beautiful arrangement of flowers.

"Perfect," he murmured to himself. Everything was just perfect for his big apology to Clary. How could she not forgive him if he apologized to her right there in the meadow of wildflowers after eating his extra birthday cake specially made for the two of them and gave the thirty-inch teddy bear he ordered just for her?

Later that evening during his birthday party, he stood anxiously by the front door and waited for Clary to show. All of his friends including Gabriel and Meliorn arrived promptly between the hours of five and six.

By the time the clock showed six-thirty, he ran out of the house, not caring in the slightest that he wasn't supposed to leave his own party. Luke's car was nowhere in sight and the sky was beginning to darken, putting a damper on his plan to give Clary a big ass apology in the meadow.

No matter how angry she was at him, he'd never thought that she would miss his birthday party. He sat on the front porch step for a while, looking up every now and then at the main street to see if that grey sedan was going to drive by but it never showed.

He sat there for close to an hour, just staring at the streets, replaying the lines he had memorized in his head and shaking his head whenever the memory of how he'd cruelly pushed her to the ground arose. He would have sat there until it was time for the guests to leave but Celine Herondale dragged him into the house by his ear and berated him for his lack of manners.

So that was how Jace found himself sitting at the dining table, alternating between staring at the dinner table and at the clock. She's really not coming, he thought sadly, finally getting up from his seat and moving back to the multi-purpose room.

Two rings of the doorbell sent him running straight toward the living room, his heart filled with hope. Who cared if she turned up late? Better late than never!

He yanked the heavy door open and his hopeful smile immediately widened into an ecstatic grin. "Clary! You're here!"

Clary didn't return his smile. She stood there expressionless as he grinned at her.

Jace's smile faltered. He cleared his throat awkwardly and took her hand. "Come on," he said brightly, not willing to let her less than neutral expression affect his mood. He had a plan to execute!

He led her to the back of the house where the backyard was situated and was about to lead her out to the creak when she shrugged away his hand.

Jace turned around, looking at her in confusion. Though her face still remained expressionless, her eyes were filled with emotion. Jace recognized disappointment and resignation in them.

Clary reached into her backpack and produced two packages, one wrapped beautifully in shiny blue wrapping paper while the other was unwrapped. Jace smiled brightly, thinking that things were were okay between them. He shook the unwrapped box first and smirked when he heard the tinkling of bells inside it.

"Did you get me an ankle bracelet to match the one I gave you for your birthday?" He looked down at her left ankle, expecting to see that familiar chain there but there wasn't anything around it.

"You're not wearing it!" Jace folded his arms across his chest awkwardly while holding the two packages.

Tears appeared in Clary's eyes. "No, I'm not."

"Why?" Jace demanded to know, swallowing uneasily.

Clary remained silent, giving him a 'you know why' look.

"Clary?" he said, his voice unsteady with fear.

"Bye bye, Jace," Clary said sadly before turning around and going back the way she came.

"Clary, wait! We haven't eaten our cake yet!" Jace cried out in desperation, setting the two packages down and made to run off to grab the cake.

"Find someone else to eat it with," she replied without a backward glance.

Jace halted in his tracks. "But we always eat our special birthday cakes together!"

"Not any more," Clary wiped her tears with the back of her hand.

"The meadow" he said abruptly, "I know you love that place. I was going to -"

"It's too late," Clary whispered, turning around to face him once more.

No. No, no, no! Jace tugged at his hair in desperation. The thought of never seeing her smile at him again, of never speaking to him again and never sleeping over with her again brought tears to his eyes. Jace Herondale hadn't cried for years. Not since he started attending elementary school.

"Are we still friends?"

Clary stopped in her tracks once more. "Not any more," she repeated softly, sniffling loudly into the back of her hand.

Not any more. Those words echoed over and over again in his head long after she left. With tears streaming down his face, he picked up the two presents she gave him and brought them up to his room. He sat down on his bed and set aside the unwrapped box. He picked up the other and unwrapped it gingerly, careful not to rip the paper.

The present brought a smile to his face despite his tears and shitty mood. It was perhaps the most thoughtful gift anyone had ever given him, and it came from a four-year-old who knew him better than anyone. Inside the box sat a scrapbook partially filled with memories of the good times he had and a football jersey which his parents had adamantly refused to buy for him.

His fingers lightly touched the photos that were inside the scrapbook, half smiling and half crying at the memories they held.

He reached for the second box Clary had given him and lifted the lid gingerly. His guess was spot on. It contained everything that he had ever given her and also the pillowcase he slept on during sleepovers at her house.

He brought the pillowcase up to his nose and sniffed. It smelled like his jasmine shampoo mixed with another floral scent. Clary must've laid on it, he thought fondly.

He jingled the bells on the ankle bracelet nestled at the base of the box, smiling at the memories they gave him. He replaced the items into the box after a while and took it with him as he descended the stairs with a renewed determination.

He bumped into his baker on the way downstairs.

"Young master, where shall I place the cake?"

"Put it into a cake box and leave it on the dining table," Jace replied without any hesitation. His previous plan might have failed, but there was no way his new plan could.

TFS*

Jace let himself through the front gate of the Frays' house, not caring in the slightest that he was trespassing. On the front porch step, he carefully laid out a cake box, a small bunch of wildflowers in the arms of a giant teddy and the unwrapped box Clary had given to him a few hours before. From the front pocket of his white coat, he produced a small card which he slid under the ribbon securing the cake box.

He gazed up at the window of Clary's room. The light was on. He mouthed the words 'I'm sorry' before reaching up on tiptoes to press the doorbell thrice. Then, he raced like a bat out of hell into the waiting car a few houses down.

Through the tinted windows of the Mercedes, he saw Clary peeking out of the curtains. She disappeared for a moment and the front door swung open. She stared at the various items on the front porch step in confusion. It seemed like forever to Jace before she bent down and took the items in, looking around surreptitiously as if to try and find him. After a while, she shook her head and closed the front door behind her.

Jace stared at the Frays' house for a few moments, and watched as the light in the living room went out, the lights to Clary's bedroom following shortly after. A despondent expression washed over his face when he realized she probably did not even touch the cake. He wondered if the bear, flowers and the box of her stuff were in the trash just like their friendship.

Probably. He hastily blinked his tears away as a fist clenched at his heart. The chauffeur saw his expression in the rear view mirror and contemplated offering him a tissue and maybe make a pit stop for ice cream.

Jace caught Taylor's eye in the rear view mirror and glared at him. "Don't," he said harshly.

"But sir —"

"Don't," Jace repeated, his voice dropping to a whispered plea. "Just drive."

Taylor wanted to protest, but he knew better than to go against Jace's wishes when he was in that kind of mood. Dutifully, he hit the gas and took him out of there.

TFS*

_October 24th 1999_

"Mommy, can I please stay at home?" Clary pleaded as she tugged at her mother's dress.

"No matter how many times you ask, the answer will not change,"Jocelyn said through her teeth, her patience wearing thin.

"But I don't want to go to Orchard Beach today," Clary murmured to herself.

"How about you bring your sketchbooks there? At least you'll have something to do while the adults talk," Luke suggested as he stepped into Clary's bedroom.

He noticed a gigantic teddy sitting next to her pillows where Jace usually slept when he came over. "Did Jace give this to you?"

Clary nodded, not even looking at what he was gesturing at. Idly, she traced the petals of the wildflowers sitting in an empty jam jar filled with water.

"Luke, I'll start the car. Bring her down when she's dressed," Jocelyn nodded at her daughter before briskly walking down the stairs and presumably out of the door.

"What do you say to collecting seashells and making sandcastles?" Luke said cheerfully in an attempt to cheer the little girl up.

Clary smiled a little. "With moats?"

"A sandcastle isn't a sandcastle unless it has a moat," Luke smiled in return, ruffling her hair affectionately.

"Okay then," Clary replied, relieved that she wouldn't have to talk to Jace at all. She hurriedly pulled on her socks and shoes before grabbing her sketchbooks and following Luke out of the house.

TFS*

Clary walked along the edge of the sea, feeling the cool water sweep over her feet when the tide came in. A particularly large tide swept in, nearly knocking her off her feet. Luke ran toward her in alarm and grabbed ahold of her arm even though she had already regained her balance.

"It's too dangerous to walk along here by yourself. Come on. Let's go get some grub and then we'll make the biggest sandcastle ever okay?"

Clary looked over to where her mother and Mrs. Herondale were setting out a variety of food on a large picnic mat under a parasol. She looked up at Luke. "We're eating with them today?"

Luke nodded. He saw her look over at the Herondale boy, her expression forlorn.

"Why don't we build the sandcastle first? We can eat later," he suggested.

Clary smiled, though it wasn't the bright smile that he'd grown accustomed to.

"Sandcastles it is then!"

A couple of hours later, Luke and Clary had successfully built a sandcastle surrounded by a moat. Sea shells lined the inner circumference of the moat and at the top of the castle was a lollipop used in place of a flag.

"Let's grab a bite. I'm starving from all that work!" Luke rubbed his tummy, earning a giggle from Clary. He held out his hand but she shook her head.

"I want to draw it," she pointed at the sandcastle.

"You can draw it after we eat. Come on," he held out his hand again.

Clary shook her head again and insisted that she draw it before she went to have a snack. Luke tried to persuade her a few more times but she stubbornly insisted that she had to draw the castle first.

In the end, Luke threw his hands up into the air in surrender, chuckling as he did so. "You are one stubborn little girl," he shook his head and left her to do her drawing.

Clary smiled a little as she pulled out a drawing pencil from her small bag and flipped her sketchbook to an empty page. She started from the lollipop, wondering if she should replace it with a flag in the sketch. She decided to stick to what she saw. She was halfway down the topmost floor of the castle when a beach ball suddenly flew over and knocked most of the castle down.

Clary blinked a few times at the bright beach ball before tossing her sketchbook aside and jumping up, shouting angrily in the direction where the ball came from.

"Hey! You —"

She stopped abruptly when she realized it was Jace and friends, Meliorn and Gabriel.

"Aw look at that Meliorn! We ruined Jace's girlfriend's sandcastle!" Gabriel said mockingly.

"Oh what ever will we do?" Meliorn replied, picking up his beach ball and using his foot to disintegrate what remained of the sandcastle.

Clary fought the urge to cry as she turned around to call for Luke and her mother. They were nowhere in sight. Even the Herondale adults weren't anywhere near the picnic mat. She turned back around and saw Jace pulling his friends away, his expression filled with anger.

"What the hell!" she heard him say.

Clary looked at him, wondering if she was imagining things. Why would Jace do that?

The boys argued for a while and Jace's expression changed. Blood drained from his face. Despite everything, Clary was worried. _What is going on?_

Jace whipped his head around. "Clary run!"

She stared at him in confusion, her feet rooted to the sand. She saw Meliorn and Gabriel reaching into their pockets and pulling something out. Catapults. Understanding dawned upon her.

"Run!" Jace yelled once more, trying to pull his friends away.

Clary didn't need to be told thrice. She picked her sketchbook up and ran as fast as she could. She felt a rock whiz past her ear, narrowly missing her by millimeters. She pushed herself to run even faster, but she was running out of energy. She slowed, barely running. She was about to stop when a hand grabbed hers and dragged her along.

She was astonished, to say the least. She didn't even need to look at the person's face to know whose hand it was. It was the same hand that ruffled her hair. The same hand that patted her to sleep during sleepovers. The same hand that put the ankle bracelet on for her on her birthday.

The two kids ran as fast as they could but they were no match for the boys with catapults. A rock hit Clary squarely on her back and another bounced off the back of Jace's head. Clary saw him wince but he didn't slow.

They stopped running after a while, hiding in under a shelter near the carpark.

"I think... we lost... them," Jace panted, breathing deeply to calm his racing heart.

Clary nodded, slumping down on the floor and dropping her sketchbook next to her.

"Are you okay? Did any of the rocks hit you?" Jace asked breathlessly.

"I'm okay," Clary replied, ignoring the small stab of pain on her back.

"It hit you? Where?" Jace ran his fingers around the back of her head, down her arms and her back until he found the tender spot. "Does it hurt?"

"Not any more," she replied. Jace eyed her with disbelief. He rubbed at the spot gently anyway. "Doesn't your head hurt more?"

Clary reciprocated, reaching up to rub his head where the rock hit him. Jace didn't even wince.

"It doesn't hurt?"

Jace shrugged. "High pain threshold. Or at least that's what my dad says." Upon seeing her confused expression, he rubbed at the little 'v' that formed between her brows until she stopped frowning. "It means that I can endure a lot of pain."

"Why did you save me?" Clary asked after a while as Jace flipped through her sketchbook.

"I didn't want you to get hurt," he told her, his voice softer than she'd ever heard it. He put the sketchbook away and looked into her eyes, dark gold meeting forest green. "I'm so sorry for all the things I did to hurt you." Tears sprang to his eyes as he remembered how he pushed her before and her expression after she fell.

"It's okay," Clary smiled, brushing the tears away from his cheeks.

"Are we still best friends?"

"Always. I have the cake to prove it," she said.

"Cake? You kept it? But I thought..." Jace trailed off. He'd been so sure that she threw it away right after she brought it into her house.

"Of course. We always eat our birthday cakes together!"

Jace felt his heart race again, but he couldn't for the life of him comprehend why. He had the urge to just... He looked at her torn with indecision. Then quickly before he could chicken out, he placed a quick kiss on her lips.

Clary gasped and raised her fingers to her lips. "Why..."

Jace blushed a little and shrugged to appear blaisé. "My folks do it all the time."

"But —"

"Let's go back," he said abruptly, standing up and holding a hand out to her.

"Do you think they're waiting for us?"

"Don't worry. I'll protect you," Jace promised. "I'll always protect you."

TFS*


	2. Present Days and New Beginnings

**Disclaimer: The Mortal Instruments is owned by Cassandra Clare. I don't own anything except for the plot of The Falling Star. I'm just messing around and having fun with the characters.**

* * *

><p><em><span>Present Day<span> _

"Mom, I'm home!" Clary called out as she shut the front door behind her. She halted her movements the instant she saw the familiar scene before her. Large white sheets had been haphazardly draped over the furniture in the living room and suitcases sat near the front door.

No. _No_. _No_!

"Good you're home. Quick go pack your stuff. We're leaving," Jocelyn said as she rushed out of her studio with a bag in tow.

Clary stared as her mother dragged the bag across the living room and placed it together with the other bags.

"What are you waiting for? I said we're leaving," Jocelyn said impatiently when she realised that her daughter wasn't moving.

"No. You promised we wouldn't have to move again." How could her mother do this to her again?

"I've changed my mind."

"Well, news flash, mom! It doesn't work that way. I've worked so hard to pay for the Tisch classes! And my new friends —"

"I'll pay you back for those Tisch classes. And you can always make new friends." Jocelyn folded her arms across her chest and narrowed her eyes at her daughter, a sure sign that she was about five seconds from losing her patience.

"Why must you do this to me? What's the reason why we keep moving from town to town every few months?" Clary asked in frustration, fighting the urge to pull at her hair.

Jocelyn looked at her daughter for a few moments with an unfathomable expression before her eyes hardened and her face burned with resolve. "Now, Clary."

"No! For twelve years I've let you drag me across the country whenever you felt like it. I'm not going to let you do it again until you tell me why." Clary folded her arms and stared defiantly at her mother.

Jocelyn's eyes widened fractionally in surprise because no matter how bad situations got, her daughter had never defied her. As if propelled by a whirlwind, she dragged her struggling daughter up two flights of stairs to her bedroom and shoved her inside.

"You have fifteen minutes. After that I'm dragging you out regardless if you have a change of clothes for the rest of the journey to Canada," Jocelyn said angrily.

Clary slammed her bedroom door shut in her mother's face and locked it. Next, she dragged her dressing table with much difficulty in front of the door. Then, she pulled out her cell and dialed a number that had become very familiar to her over the summer.

"Hey it's me, Clary," she said into the receiver the moment the call connected. "I need a ride in ten minutes, my place."

She sighed in relief when Simon Lewis, her new best friend, said he'd be there.

She threw her cell onto the dressing table she'd just dragged across her room and peeled off her clothes in record time. She stepped into a black sleeveless cotton dress which just grazed the tops of her knees she'd bought two weeks ago and pulled on her black converse shoes. She left her hair down and checked her reflection in the mirror. Yep. That was exactly how she wanted to be remembered.

She drew the curtains open and kept a lookout for Simon's bright red Honda and strained her ears to hear her mother's footsteps outside her room, lest she get caught by surprise.

Ten agonizing minutes later, she finally spotted the red car rounding the corner of the road to her house.

"Oh thank God!" She murmured in relief. Pulling the window open, she hoisted herself up and balanced precariously on the windowsill. She catched ahold of the vines hanging down from the roof, somehow managing to maintain her balance and lowered herself onto the ground.

When she righted herself, she saw her mother staring at her through the open ground floor window, her mouth agape. _Shit_!

Clary bolted for the gate, hightailing out of the house as fast as she could just in time to get into the Honda when it stopped outside the house.

"Drive!" she hissed at Simon who was staring at her much like the way Jocelyn was when she dropped down from the vines moments ago. She saw her mother run out of the house after her and for a few seconds, she was certain that they wouldn't make it.

At the last moment, Simon floored the gas and took them out of there. Clary stared at Jocelyn's reflection through the rear view mirror until she was out of sight before she allowed herself to relax. She sagged against the leather seats of the Honda, sighing with relief.

"What the hell is going on, Fray?" Simon demanded to know.

"Remember when I told you I've never stayed in a place for more than three months?"

Simon nodded, not taking his eyes away from the road.

"Well, it's happening again," Clary said, biting hard on her lip and forcing herself not to cry.

"What?" Simon said, aghast. His fingers tightened around the wheel.

"I'm leaving. She's taking me to Canada this time," she told him as she turned to stared blankly out of the window.

"So you asked me here so that you can say goodbye," he guessed.

"Yes," Clary whispered.

Silence filled the car for several minutes before Simon turned to her and said cheerily, "Well, if this is your last day in Manhattan, there's something you definitely need to experience before you go."

TFS*

Simon pulled over at the entrance of a club and got out, handing his keys over to the Valet. Clary stepped out of the front seat and gazed up at the flashing neon sign.

"A club called Pandemonium? This is what I need to experience before I leave New York? Seriously, Simon? I was thinking more along the lines of Central Park."

Simon shrugged. "Seeing that you probably won't make any close friends for a while, clubbing with one seems like an experience you need to have before you leave. If you still want to go to Central Park after this, I can take you there."

"I might take you up on that," Clary smiled at him, "though I'm not sure what's there to see at night."

Simon smiled in return and held out his arm for her to take. "Shall we?"

Clary chuckled and hooked her arm around his. "Hell yeah."

They joined the moderately long line to get in. When it was their turn, the beefy bouncer's gaze slid over Simon like he was invisible and he eyed Clary like someone had just thrown up over her. He wrinkled his nose in disgust and sighed, gesturing at the entrance.

"Wow, someone's having a pleasant day," Simon said sarcastically as they passed the bouncer. Thankfully, the music was cranked up so loud that Clary could hardly hear him, much less the people standing outside. As much as she believed that her best friend could fend for himself, she knew he wouldn't be match for the beefy muscled man.

"I'm going to get a drink," Simon shouted over the music. "Do you want anything?"

Clary shrugged and tried to shout over the music. When she realized that he couldn't hear a thing from the way he was trying to read her lips and his confused look, she threw her hands up in the air. Simon burst out in laughter at her reaction.

Clary narrowed her eyes at him although he couldn't see her as he was laughing with his eyes closed. His eyes flew open in surprise when he felt her grab his wrist and pull him through the throng of dancing people toward the bar.

She froze about five steps away from the bar when she recognized the bartender. "Eric?"

The music was softer on this side of the club so the bartender, Eric, snapped his head up when his name was called.

Eric nodded at the pair before resuming wiping down the numerous glasses on the bar top.

"You didn't tell me he works here," Clary hissed into Simon's ear. "I thought you guys were in a band together," she added.

"Well yeah, but the band's not doing so well at the moment so..." he trails off, shrugging.

"Well, the drinks he makes had better not kill me," she said warningly before hopping up onto one of the stools.

"Give me a regular martini and a..." Simon trailed off, looking at Clary.

"Sex on the Beach," she told Eric, who eyed her suspiciously.

"How old are you? Fifteen? Aren't you too young to drink?"

"Don't put too much vodka in there," Simon instructed his friend.

"Why? You think I can't handle it?" Clary said angrily.

"You've never drank alcohol before have you? Trust me, a hangover is something you don't want to get, especially not when you have a flight to catch."

"Mix it," Clary persisted, ignoring Simon and narrowing her eyes at Eric who shrugged and grabbed the ingredients. Simon sighed and sat in the stool next to hers.

Clary spun her body around on the stool so that her back was to the bar. She looked at the people on the dance floor as she nodded her head to the beats of a the song. Many girls were scantily clad and dancing sensually in a way that she knew she'd never be able to.

"Sex on the Beach," Eric announced, sliding the drink onto the bar top behind her. As Clary turned her body back around, she saw her best friend staring fixatedly at the dance floor with his jaw on the floor.

She put a hand under his chin and shut it for him. She saw a line of drool at the corner of his mouth and shook her head in disgust. "Is she hot?" she asked, looking back at the dance floor and trying to spot the girl that had captured his attention.

Simon nodded dumbly. "Major understatement of the year, Fray. She has a rockin' bod, a fantastic rack and _damn_, she can move."

"Well, what are you waiting for then?" Clary nudged him and jerked her head in the direction of the girl.

"Nah I shouldn't. We're supposed to be clubbing together."

"It's okay. Go have fun. I'll find myself a sexy guy to dance with," Clary reassured him.

Simon didn't need to be told twice. He downed his martini and swaggered exaggeratedly over to the girl he'd set his sights on. Clary saw that the girl was beautiful and did have a figure many girls would die for. The black-haired girl interrupted Simon mid speech by grabbing his waist and forcing him to dance to the beat with her.

Chuckling to herself, Clary grabbed her drink and took a daring sip. The vodka burned as it went down her throat but it wasn't too bad. She turned back around to watch the people dancing, as well as keep an eye on Simon to make sure the girl didn't drag him off to a corner to have sex. When she saw Simon put his hands on the girl's ass, however, Clary averted her eyes immediately and shuddered.

Just as she was turning to look at the opposite end of the dance floor instead, a flash of blond caught her eye. She scanned the throng of gyrating people quickly, trying to locate that specific shade of dark blond which had stuck in her mind for the past twelve years.

_He's dead_. _He's been dead for more than a decade now_, she reminded herself. After a few seconds, she spotted the blond haired guy dancing with one of the scantily clad girls, though dancing might have been putting it mildly. His hands lay low on the girl's hips as they swayed from left to right with the beat and he was grinding his hips into hers.

Even from the distance, Clary could see that his eyes were smoldering, though she wasn't close enough to know the color of them. When the song changed, he dropped his hands and the girl kissed his cheek. She saw a flash of movement and she could have sworn the girl tucked something — her number? — into the back pocket of his black jeans.

The boy maneuvered through the crowd and found himself another scantily clad girl. He didn't put his hands on her though they were dancing very close to each other. The girl put her hands on his chest and closed the distance between them. The boy started to do a series of complicated moves. Clary stared transfixed as he did so. She couldn't tear her eyes off him though she knew she should. It was rude to stare after all. But _damn_, that boy could move.

The boy leaned toward the girl and bent down so that his lips were at her ear. Clary saw the girl nod. He took her hand and led her off the dance floor.

Clary tore her eyes away from the boy and she turned back look for Simon. _He is not Jace_, she told herself once again.

There was no sign of her best friend where she last saw him. _Crap_. Her cell was still sitting on her dressing table at home so she had no way of contacting him. She hopped off the bar stool, drink in hand and proceeded to search the dance floor for him. Hell, maybe they were really having sex in a dark corner somewhere like she suspected they'd would.

She was halfway to the dance floor, sipping her drink when she heard someone called her last name. _Simon_. She whirled around and bumped into someone, her drink flying from the glass.

"Shit!"

Clary's jaw dropped in horror when she realized she'd bumped into the blond guy she was staring at not two minutes ago and that he was drenched in Sex on the Beach. From her glass.

The guy rubbed vigorously at his eyes which were squeezed shut and most of her drink was on his white button down shirt. He peeled one of his eyes open and squinted at her as she blinked at him, mouth agape as if she were in the midst of processing the events that had just transpired. He glared at her once he successfully got most of the concoction, which stung his eyes like a bitch, out.

Clary blinked twice more before the reality of what she'd done sank in. "Oh God, I'm so sorry," she apologized immediately, taking in the large orange stain on his shirt and the very annoyed look on his face.

"It's not God you should be apologizing to, but me, little girl," he said, his words barely audible, but somehow over the loud music she heard it.

Clary stared at him incredulously. Yes, she'd been using God's name in vain, but she was obviously apologizing to him. But then again, she did get Vodka all over him so he had a right to be an ass.

"I'll pay for your dry cleaning," she offered, frantically thinking about how she'd get the money since she had nothing on her.

The guy scoffed. "Dry cleaning?" He shook his head. "No, little girl, I expect you to replace it."

"What?" Clary gasped. She could hardly afford a dry cleaning bill after paying for her Tisch classes and he wanted her to pay a few hundred dollars for his dress shirt?

"You heard me right. This is a two thousand dollar dress shirt from Gucci. Pay up," he held his hand out to her, palm upright and tapped his foot impatiently.

_Two thousand dollars_!_ Who buys a shirt for two thousand dollars_? Clary gaped at his outrageous request for a few moments before she slapped his hand away. "Listen here, mister. All you're going to get from me is twenty bucks for your dry cleaning bill. You want me to pay two thousand dollars? You can kiss my ass!"

The boy ran his eyes down her body, lingering at her chest. "I might just take you up on that offer because you look like you'd be a good lay, but unfortunately, I still have the remnants of vodka swimming in my eyes so..." he looked around, squinting as he did so. "You'd better be here when I get back. If I have to track you down, it won't be a pretty picture," he warned, walking away.

"Good luck tracking me across the country, asshat," she rolled her eyes and looked around for Simon. She was sure he had called her name before, but he was nowhere in sight.

The slight buzz from the alcohol was wearing out and the loud beats made the pounding in her head worse. She sighed after a while, giving up on finding her best friend and resigned to take a cab home to face the music.

TFS*

She saw Luke's truck sitting in the driveway when the cab arrived at her house. Not wanting to ask either one of them for money to pay the cabbie, she headed straight for the vines she'd used earlier. The curtains on the ground floor were drawn so she wasn't too worried about getting caught.

She clambered up as quickly as she could and grabbed the cash from her purse. After paying the fare, she crept back toward the house, wincing whenever the gravel crunched loudly beneath her feet. As she neared the house, she noticed that the front door was ajar. Frowning, she chanced a peek through the gap.

Everything was exactly the way it was before she left. Luke and her mother were nowhere in sight. A strange uneasiness washed over her. She pulled off her shoes and stepped inside.

Clary saw that the studio was on from the gap beneath the door. She tiptoed toward it. As she neared, she heard the hushed voices of Luke and Jocelyn.

Instantly, her curiosity was piqued. She hurried over and pressed her ear to the door.

"You can't keep running away, Jocelyn," she heard Luke say.

"What else can I do, Luke? He's after me, I'm sure of it." Jocelyn's voice shook.

"You can't be sure of that."

"I am sure," Jocelyn insisted.

"Why? Why is he coming after you? I've been helping you run away for twelve years, Jocelyn. I deserve to know the truth."

The silence that followed was deafening. Clary strained her ears to hear something. Anything.

The door swung open suddenly and Clary, unprepared for that, stumbled forward. Luke looked surprised and weary while her mother looked absolutely horrified.

"Were you eavesdropping?" Jocelyn asked.

"Who's coming after you? Why can't we just call the cops?" Clary demanded to know.

Jocelyn stared at her daughter, worry evident in her expression, but didn't say anything.

"Answer me! Don't keep me in the dark. I deserve an explanation after all this time, mom."

When Jocelyn continued to keep mum, Luke sighed in exasperation and walked out of the studio. They both heard the truck starting moments later and the sound of gravel crunching under tires.

"Hiding the truth rarely helps," Clary said.

Jocelyn sighed. "It may not help matters, but at least it keeps you safe." She walked out of the studio and Clary heard a door upstairs slam a few seconds later.

TFS*

Hours after the whole fiasco that occurred, Jocelyn's words replayed in an infinite loop in Clary's head. _It may not help matters, but at least it keeps you safe_.

Would not knowing anything really keep her safe? She doubted it.

She shook her head as she stepped into the shower, trying to clear her head. She squeezed her eyes shut as the water cascaded down her face and a memory of the boy at the club appeared, unbidden into her mind. Looks like she'd have an opportunity to pay him the dry cleaning bill after all.

Involuntarily, she remembered how good he looked up close. _His eyes are gold too_. _Just like Jace's_.

But he's not Jace, she reminded herself once again. Another memory rose up involuntarily. The picture was so clear in her head as if it'd happened the day before.

_November 3rd 1999_

Clary sat on the beanbag in the living room, idly flipping through channels on the TV. She was all dressed up, donning a periwinkle blue dress with matching blue shoes complete with the tiara Jace had given her.

"Where's mommy?" she asked Luke who was also all dressed up.

Luke sat uncomfortably on the couch and adjusted his tie awkwardly. He wasn't used to wearing a penguin suit at all. He checked his watch. The errand Jocelyn was running was taking a longer time than usual. They were about to miss their dinner reservation if she didn't return home soon.

Right on cue, Jocelyn stepped into the house. One look at her expression and he instantly knew that something was wrong. Terribly wrong.

"Mommy!" Clary said happily, hopping off the couch and bounding over to take her hand.

Jocelyn couldn't even manage to smile at her daughter. "Luke..." she trailed off, her voice unsteady with tears.

"What's wrong?" Luke crossed the distance to her and held her shoulders.

"Stephen's family... they... they're dead," she sobbed into her hands.

"Oh God," Luke said, aghast.

"Mommy?" Clary said uncertainly. She didn't know what was going on but she knew it wasn't good. Tears sprang to her eyes at the sight of her mother breaking down uncontrollably. She tugged at her mother's dress when she didn't respond.

Jocelyn composed herself for the sake of her daughter. She knelt down on one knee so that she was at face level with her four-year-old daughter. "Mommy's okay, darling," she said as reassuringly as she could.

"I'll cancel the reservation," Luke said and he left the two to talk.

"Why are you crying?" Clary asked, the tears still rolling down her cheeks.

"Remember what I told you about daddy?" Jocelyn asked, wiping Clary's tears away.

Clary nodded. "Daddy's in heaven. He cannot come back, but he's watching us."

Jocelyn nodded, and fresh tears formed. No four-year-old should have to deal with death.

"Jace just went to heaven," she broke the news.

"Why?" Clary asked, and the tears which had barely stopped started once again.

"God decided it was time for him to go," Jocelyn repeated the same explanation as when Clary had asked about her father.

Having never seen her father before since he was in heaven from before she was born, Clary understood well enough that she'd never see Jace again. Not in real life.

Clary nodded. "He will be watching over me too right?"

Jocelyn who was so choked up with tears that she couldn't speak, nodded.

"Is he happy?"

Jocelyn nodded again. "Yes, baby. He is."

Clary wiped her nose with the back of her hand and managed a genuine smile through her tears. "Then I'm happy too."

She willed her tears to stop as she returned to her room but they didn't.

"I can't let Jace see me cry," she told herself determinedly and wiped the tears away. When her face was dry, she stood in front of her bedroom window with her photo albums.

"Jace? Are you in heaven yet?" she looked up at the sky. The stars twinkled at her as if Jace was replying to her question.

"I'm wearing the tiara. And the bells too," she added, pointing to her ankle.

"Goodbye, Jace. I wish I said that before you went to heaven," she whispered sadly. She flipped one of the albums open and looked down at Jace's face. It was taken just after they had made up, the day after his birthday. The two were eating their special cake and grinning widely.

"I'll never forget you," she told him, tracing his face in the photo. She shut the album and drew the curtains and collapsed onto the bed. His pillow still smelled like him, and the thought brought tears into her eyes again. She really let herself cry this time while hugging the pillow. _Tomorrow I'll be happy_, she promised him.

_Present Day_

When she came to the end of that memory, she was in tears. She looked up at the sky through the bathroom window just like she did almost twelve years ago.

_He really resembles you, Jace_. She sighed and stepped out of the shower, wrapping herself in a towel and went back to her bedroom. The bear he gave her still sat on her bed. She always brought it with her when they travelled from town to town. She smiled at the fleeting memory of him leaving it on her front porch step.

She sat down at her dressing table and that was when she saw her cell phone blinking. She picked it up and saw the words _twenty new text messages_ and _thirteen missed calls_.

_Crap_. With all the drama, she'd completely forgotten about Simon! She quickly scrolled through the texts. His tone became more and more worried with each text. She quickly typed out a reply to reassure him that she hadn't passed out drunk somewhere or gotten kidnapped by her mom. She also told him that it wasn't her last night in New York after all.

He responded almost instantly, and went into detail about the girl he met - Isabelle, and about how he nearly got laid that night, something that Clary couldn't for the life of her figure out why he felt he needed to tell her.

She rolled under the covers after throwing on an old T-shirt, completely worn out by the events of the day. She drifted quickly off to sleep.

That night, a boy with dark blond hair, messy from dancing and smouldering gold eyes starred in her dreams.

TFS*

"So you've been going from town to town just because some psycho is after your mom?" Simon said as he killed the engine.

"Must you repeat everything I say?" Clary snapped, and felt guilty immediately.

"Sorry. It's just... when you told me that you've never stayed in one place for long, I never thought it'd be due to this," he explained.

"No, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have snapped at you like that. You didn't deserve it."

"S'okay. So what does your mom plan to do now? Are you still planning to move to Canada?"

Clary shrugged. "We haven't talked since she told me I was safer not knowing anything, but I'm staying here."

Simon looked at her with an unfathomable expression for several moments but didn't say anything in response. After a while he realized that he'd been staring and cleared his throat, looking away awkwardly.

"We should probably get to class. What have you got?"

"I don't know yet. I need to get my schedule from the adminstrative office. Hopefully I'll have some classes with you."

They got out of the car. The parking lot had filled up a lot after their talk. Around them, students were hanging out in groups beside vehicles while others were strolling into the school.

"C'mon. I'll walk you to the office," he offered, leading the way.

They reached a rather ominous looking office. Clary reached for the door knob, feeling nervous although she'd done this more times than she could count.

Just as she was about to twist the knob, the door swung open and she stumbled head first into the office. She bumped into something hard. She felt a pair of hands cup her shoulders.

She opened her eyes (she had squeezed them shut when she was falling) and realized that her face was pressing against someone's chest. The person smelled like jasmine and fresh laundry. The scent was oddly familiar.

The pair of hands on her shoulders steadied her as the person stepped back. Clary felt her cheeks flush and looked up to apologize. Her words got caught in her throat and a gasp replaced them instead.

"Well well. Look who we have here." The boy dropped his hands from her shoulders. "I don't think I've introduced myself, little girl. I'm Jace," he paused and Clary felt her heart stop. "Jace Wayland."


	3. First Day Clashes

**Disclaimer: The Mortal Instruments is owned by Cassandra Clare. I don't own anything except for the plot of The Falling Star. I'm just having fun and messing around with the characters.**

* * *

><p>Previously on The Falling Star:<p>

_"Well well. Look who we have here." The boy dropped his hands from her shoulders. "I don't think I've introduced myself, little girl. I'm __Jace," he paused and Clary felt her heart stop. "Jace __Wayland."_

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 3<strong>

Clary stared at the beautiful blond-haired boy with her mouth agape for several long seconds before she felt her heart restart, and it proceeded to slam painfully against her ribs. _Wayland_. _His name is __Wayland, not __Herondale_, she told herself. _How can it be __Herondale __anyway? My __Jace __Herondale __has been buried six feet under for almost twelve years now_.

Her eyes slid involuntarily up to his hair, windblown, and just a shade or two darker than _her_ Jace's, down to his eyes, which were a pale gold, twinkling and full of mirth, down his perfectly sculptured face and angular cheekbones, and down to his full lips, one side lifted slightly higher than the other in a little smirk.

The boy, Jace, smirked at her expression. "Like what you see, little girl?"

Clary blinked twice, dragging her forest green eyes back up to meet his as her brain worked double time to make sense of his words. She snapped out of it quickly and took a step back, a blush sweeping up her cheeks. "I have to admit, I'm impressed," she said, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Everyone is," he shrugged. "It's not just you."

"Are you always this full of yourself?"

"I'm merely stating a fact."

"How did you manage to track me down so quickly? Are you a stalker?"

"Firstly, if I were really a stalker, I wouldn't admit it, so that question is redundant. Secondly, I wasn't tracking you down at all. I actually go to school here. Meeting you here in this small little Administrative office is purely a coincidence, one that saves me precious time and resources, if I might add. Two thousand dollars, little girl. Cough it up." He stuck his hand out, palm up and wriggled his fingers.

"Impressive speech, Mr. Wayland. However, if I remember correctly, I owe you a twenty for your dry cleaning bill." She dug into her backpack for her purse, fished out a crumpled twenty and slapped it into his hand. "There," she said, stuffing her purse back into her bag, "that's my allowance for the week. Now we're even."

She brushed past him, went to the woman behind the desk and obtained her class schedule. She stepped out of the small office and started when she nearly bumped into Simon. She'd totally forgotten about him after her exchange with Jace.

"What's wrong?" he asked when he saw her reaction.

_Nothing_, she wanted to say, but a warm hand grabbed her wrist from behind and the word never came out. She let out a gasp as the hand tugged at her wrist and spun her around. Deftly, the blond-haired boy plucked her schedule out of her hand and proceeded to scan through it.

"What the hell?" she said angrily, making a grab for it and tried rather unsuccessfully at wrenching her arm away from his grasp.

Jace lifted the piece of paper above her arm's reach, which wasn't a difficult thing to do, considering that Clary was barely over five feet tall and he had eleven inches over her. The corners of his lips lifted into a smile when she jumped and her fingers didn't even make contact with the paper.

"Here you go, little girl," he said, returning her schedule to her and letting go of her wrist. With a final lopsided grin, he turned on his heel and walked away.

"What was that all about?" Simon asked, raising an eyebrow.

Scowling at Jace's retreating figure as he rounded a corner and disappeared from sight, she replied, "Met him at Pandemonium yesterday. I drowned him in vodka."

Simon gasped. "You're kidding right?" When Clary didn't smile or shout April's Fools at the top of her lungs, though it was most certainly _not_ April, he laughed and shook his head at the irony of it. "Girls rush to throw _themselves_ at him and you throw your drink at him? Damn. I wish I saw that. That has to be a first for Jace Wayland."

"So he really goes to school here?" she asked.

"Yep," Simon replied, popping the 'p'. "He's a senior, and star quarterback and captain of the football team." He slung an arm over her shoulder and led her away, looking at her schedule as he did so. "Cool, we have third period Spanish together. C'mon. I'll walk you to your Algebra class."

TFS*

By the time the third period class rolled around, Clary was exhausted, and her head was swirling with at least two dozen faces to which she could not associate the names to.

"You made it. On your first day too," Simon said with undisguised admiration as she caught him just outside classroom ten. Quickly, he dragged her inside the classroom.

"Mrs. Penhallow is the queen bitch of all bitches, so you'd better not get on her bad side on day one." He scanned the classroom quickly for available seats and swore when he saw that all the good seats had already been taken, and that there were no more free adjacent seats. "Tell you what. I'll take the seat in front and you can grab that seat over there by—"

"Hola niña," a voice said right next to Clary's ear. She gasped upon hearing that particular voice, its usual cockiness now infused with velvet tones.

She did not bother to give him a response. Turning back to Simon, she said, "I'll take the front seat."

And with that, she strode over to the empty seat right in front of the teacher's desk. Just as she was about to slide into the seat, a hand grabbed her arm and dragged her away from the table.

"What's your problem?" she said angrily, trying unsuccessfully to wrench her arm out of his grasp for the second time that day.

"I don't like to sit right under Jia Penhallow's nose," Jace said with a shrug. He pulled her over to a window seat and nodded to the boy sitting in the seat next to it. "I believe you're in my chair."

The boy's eyes widened as he stared at the star quarterback. Jace sighed, tapped his foot impatiently and raised his free hand to countdown from three. The boy needed no further encouragement. Quick as a flash, he cleared all his stuff from the table and scampered off to find another seat.

Jace flashed a triumphant smile at the girl whose arm he still held in his grasp. From that angle, she noticed there was a little chip in his incisor. Somehow that made her feel a little better. Jace Wayland was not that perfect in terms of looks after all.

She rolled her eyes at him in response. "Okay, I've got it. High school is your kingdom, and you have freshmen at your beck and call. Now let me go so I can get to my seat before Mrs. Penhallow arrives." She tried to shrug his hand away again, but his grip on her was relentless.

With his free hand, Jace plucked the books out from where she had sandwiched them between her arm and her body. He placed them on the table the boy had just evicted. "Your seat is right here, little girl. And for the record, the boy who was just here is a senior."

Clary unleashed the full force of her glare on him, only vaguely aware that the Spanish elective class was watching their exchange eagerly. Her glare, though not as powerful as her mother's, had been very successful in getting her what she wanted. Until now.

Jace gazed at her coolly, cocking his head to one side as if to ask: _Is that the best you can do?_

Enraged, she felt her palm twitch. Jace saw the slight movement and cocked an eyebrow. He looked slightly amused and Clary felt like she was being challenged. "Let go of me," she demanded.

"Will you really hit me if I don't?"

She swallowed. "I—"

"Sentarse, tanto para usted como de la," someone snapped at the pair.

Jace dropped Clary's hand immediately as if it had caught fire. Both of them whipped their heads to face the irate teacher at the front of the classroom.

Jace cleared his throat and smoothed down the front of his shirt before sliding into his seat. His expression betrayed nothing. It was as if the whole exchange had never occurred.

Clary flushed as Jia Penhallow glared at her. Quickly, she plopped down into the seat next to Jace's, not wanting to risk incurring her wrath by taking a seat halfway across the classroom.

"Vamos a empezar," Jia Penhallow addressed the class.

Throughout the entire lesson, Clary could feel Jace's eyes boring into her. It was distracting, to say the least. She could hardly focus on breathing, much less concentrate on the use of Spanish verbs. Every time she tried to catch Jace in the act however, he was always looking straight ahead on the board, giving no indication at all that he had been looking at her. It drove her crazy wondering if she was imagining things. It also infuriated her to no end that she was attracted to this boy who resembled _her_ Jace, but was nothing at all like him.

When the bell rang, she rushed to pack her things. Simon flashed her a smile when he caught her eye and came over to help her carry her books.

"Lewis, I'd like a word with her if you don't mind," Jace said when he saw Simon heading in their direction.

Simon raised an eyebrow at Clary, silently asking if she was okay with that. Clary responded with a sigh and a half-shrug.

Simon shrugged in response. "I'll wait outside."

As soon as he was out of earshot, Jace leaned down and said, "I need to talk to you."

His warm breath against the shell of her ear sent a rather nice tingle down her spine, and little flutters in her belly. "Okay, so talk," she said a little breathlessly. She cursed herself inwardly for reacting that way. What was this boy doing to her?

"Not here."

"Simon's waiting for me."

"So let him wait," Jace shrugged.

"You're being ridiculous," she snapped. She picked up her books and bag and turned to leave.

Jace reached out and grabbed her arm for the third time that day. "We're not done yet, little girl."

Clary opened her mouth, presumably to tell him off for grabbing her arm yet again, but he pressed a crisp twenty into her hand. She looked down at the bill in her palm in confusion. "Jace, I don't—"

"I can't take your whole allowance," he explained. He closed her fingers over the bill and walked away with a half-smile.

"But I still owe you that—"

"Yes. Don't think for a moment that I've forgotten about the two thousand dollars." He stopped when he was halfway across the classroom, glancing around to make sure that there was no one other than them left. "Meet me in the field in fifteen to settle this," he added. And with that, he strode out of the classroom.

*TFS

On the way to the football field ten minutes later, Jace could not help but replay all his interactions with the short red-head since he'd met her the night before. Never before had anyone surprised and intrigued him the way she did. He realized with a start that he felt almost...happy. That realization gave him a surge of hope that maybe—just maybe—he finally deserved to feel some happiness in his life.

"No, you can't!"

Jace paused in his tracks.

"Yes, I can, Kaelie, so you'd better deliver that package or else the footage will go live."

"I'll report you, Raphael. Don't think that I won't," Kaelie retorted. Her voice was unsteady.

Jace glanced around quickly. The coast was clear. He pressed his back against the wall and inched nearer toward the source of the voices. He took his iPod out and flipped it around so that the reflective surface on the back was facing himself. He tilted it at an angle, just enough for him to have a visual on the two people in the empty hallway from behind the wall he was pressed up against. He saw Raphael holding a thumb drive tauntingly at Kaelie.

"Twelve noon is your deadline, Kaelie," Raphael reminded her, tapping the thumb drive with his index finger. He continued twirling it around as he walked away in the direction Jace was hiding.

"Fucking shit!" Jace cursed under his breath. He whipped his head to the side. There was nowhere to hide, and he knew he would not make it if he ran while trying to stay silent. He dug into his pockets, hoping like hell that he had his ear buds on him. With barely five seconds to spare, he fished out a set of ear buds and plugged it into the iPod and cranked the volume up. He winced upon stuffing the ear buds into his ears. It was pure agony.

He barely had enough time to slip out one last thing from a little compartment which doubled as a volume rocker on his ear buds before Raphael entered his line of vision. Plastering a look of enjoyment on his face, he rammed right into the other boy, sending them both sprawling onto the floor. The thumb drive followed suit, sliding several feet away from Jace's reach.

Jace picked himself off the floor and limped over to the thumb drive, where he proceeded to firmly attach a small round metal chip the size of a pen tip onto the joint where the thumb drive was attached to a key ring. Once he was sure that it wouldn't detach accidently, he turned around and handed it back to Raphael.

"You dropped this," Jace yelled.

Raphael all but ripped the thumbdrive out of his grasp and looked around furtively. Jace noticed that Kaelie was nowhere in sight.

"You don't have to announce it to the world, Wayland," Raphael said angrily.

Jace could not, for the life of him, hear a word the other boy had said over the music blaring in his ears, but he sure as hell could read lips. But then again, Raphael was not supposed to know that.

"What? I can't hear you!" Jace shouted loudly again, gesturing at the ear buds in his ears.

Raphael relaxed, looking immensely relieved when he saw the white ear buds in Jace's ears and heard the loud beats of the song through them. He pulled both of the buds out and said, "Thank you."

"No problem! Sorry for barrelling into you by the way. I couldn't hear anything other than Maroon 5's Payphone," he said cheerfully, clapping Raphael's shoulder.

Raphael slipped the thumb drive into his jeans pocket and walked away. Once he was out of earshot, Jace replaced his iPod and took out his iPhone. He dialled a number as he walked briskly toward the football field. He had a little less than two minutes to get there after the little incident.

"Going in tonight?"

"I'm already there. Why?" the other person on the line asked curiously.

"I'll tell you when I go in," Jace replied and ended the call.

He pocketed his phone and sped up.

When he got to the field, he placed a hand above his eyes to shield them from the sun as he searched for that head of red curls. He smirked at her as soon as he spotted her sitting at the bleachers. He made his way over to her and plopped down into the seat next to hers.

"So, how are you going to pay me that two thousand?" he asked.

"What would you do if you spilled your drink onto someone at a club?"

"I'd pay for the person's outfit, of course. Unless he prefers that I only pay for his dry cleaning," he replied.

"Well, you may be able to dish out two thousand dollars whenever you accidentally ruin someone else's outfit, but I can't. I had to save up for many months to afford my Tisch classes. Additionally, I think it's ridiculous and unnecessary for me to pay for a replacement shirt when you can just send it for dry cleaning!" She huffed, rubbing her face with her hands in frustration.

Jace peeled her hands away from her face. Her gaze dropped to her hands in his and back up to his face. Somehow while they were talking, they had unknowingly leaned toward each other. They were close enough that Clary could see the green flecks in his gold eyes.

"That ship has sailed, little girl. There's no shirt left for you to wash." His thumbs drew small circles on the back of her palms without any conscious thought on his part. It was as if they had a mind of their own. His eyes wandered down her face, taking in her forest green eyes, the light dusting of freckles on her porcelain skin and down to her plump lips which were slightly parted. He swallowed convulsively when her small pink tongue darted out to moisten her lips. What was it about this girl that made him react like that?

"How about you do some things for me instead?" His eyes were still glued to her lips as he spoke to her. The next thing he knew, her hands were ripped away from his, and his head was whipped sharply to the left, not of its own volition. His right cheek registered the sting a second later. His lip also stung.

"Ow," he said in surprise. He flexed his jaw and turned back to face her.

Clary was standing, her face flushed with anger. His mind, still reeling from the suddenness of the attack, tried to make sense of the situation. He blinked at her. _Why is she so angry?_

"I am not that kind of girl, Jace Wayland!" She spun around on her heel and marched away furiously.

Jace sat there for a moment longer before he realized that she was not planning to return to resume their discussion. He hurried to catch up with her.

"What? What did I do?"

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me," Clary said angrily, not breaking her stride.

"I assure you, little girl, I'm not. Now tell me. What was that for?"

Clary stopped mid-stride and spun around so unexpectedly, catching him off guard. He jerked backward immediately to avoid colliding into her. He blinked at her again, surprised for the second time in a span of thirty seconds.

"My name is not '_little girl_'. It's Clary." And with that, she turned on her heel again and started down the bleacher steps.

Jace caught up with her easily. "It's a pretty name." He leapt down the remaining five stairs and spun around, blocking her path down. "You didn't answer my question."

"Don't play dumb. It's beneath you," she said harshly. "Now, get out of my way. I'm going to be late for class."

He folded his arms across his chest. "Not until you tell me what this is all about."

Clary pointed her index finger and jabbed it at his chest. "I am not the kind of girl who uses sexual favors to pay off a debt, Jace Wayland." She punctuated every word with a jab to his chest. "You damn well remember that."

Jace grabbed her finger and forced her hand back down against her side. "Is that what this is all about?" he said incredulously, flexing his jaw again.

"You're lucky I didn't do anything that would leave any permanent damage. Now let go of me!"

"I'd like to see you try, little girl," he said, ignoring her struggles and the glare she gave when he called her that. "And you misunderstood me. When I said "things", I meant collecting my clothes from the dry cleaners, buying my groceries or grabbing dinner for me after football practice—stuff like that. Jeez, what were you thinking?"

Clary eyed him disbelievingly. "Okay, assuming what you said is the truth—"

"It is the truth, goddamn it!" Jace interrupted her, throwing his hands into the air.

"How many of these errands will I have to do?" Clary continued.

"We'll have to discuss that."

"Fine. Now, let me go. I'm going to be late for class."

Jace cocked his head to the side, smirked at her, and immediately winced. "_Jesus_. What did you do to me?" He touched his lip where it stung and widened his eyes in surprise when he saw the light smear blood on his finger.

While he was distracted, Clary glanced at the railings at the sides of the stairs. _Nope. Too risky_, she decided.

She backtracked, going back up the way she came. She reached the railing in front of first row of the bleachers before he called out.

"Don't even think about it little girl."

Clary paused in her tracks and turned her head around to look at him.

"I'll reach the other side way before you even start to descend the stairs, so don't even bother to try," he said as-a-matter-of-factly, dabbing at the cut on his lip delicately.

Clary bit her lip to hide a smile. She sprinted forward.

Jace followed suit, covering the distance she'd covered easily and more, but stopped abruptly when he heard a loud thump from behind him. Whipping around, he gaped in utmost surprise when he saw her on all fours on the ground.

He gaped at her as she picked herself up, staggered a little and ran off in the direction of the school, throwing a triumphant smile at him over her shoulder.

Ever since the day he realized the opposite sex found him attractive and desirable, he'd quickly become accustomed to girls throwing themselves at him or coming up with all sorts of ways to get him to notice them. Never before had he ever met a girl who confounded and ran away from him like that. He couldn't help but wonder if all that was some elaborate scheme to ensnare him. Nevertheless, he couldn't help but chuckle as she disappeared from his view.

TFS*

Jace took a deep breath as he parked his white Audi R8 in parking lot two blocks away from Pandemonium. Killing the engine, he sagged back against his seat and ran his fingers through his hair. He wondered if he was making the right decision, interfering with something that was obviously not his problem.

"_Fuck_. Finish what you started Jace Wayland," he muttered to himself before clambering out of the R8.

He walked casually toward Pandemonium, checking to make sure that he wasn't being followed. He flashed his VIP card at the bouncer after cutting the long queue of people—mostly teenagers—trying to get in. He maneuvered through the throng of people until he came to a door which hardly any one frequented. He slipped inside quickly and shut the door behind him.

Deftly avoiding the mess of cabling on the floor, he crossed the room and came to a pair of elevator doors with a sign that said "Authorized Personnel Only". He pulled out a black credit card and swiped it across a card slot next to the doors, which slid open with a high trilling 'ping'.

He stepped into the elevator and stood still while he was being scanned. He knew from first-hand experience that the more he fidgeted, the longer it took for the scanner to verify him. The elevator plunged suddenly, indicating that he'd been verified. His face scrunched up as his stomach plunged together with the lift. The feeling never got any more bearable regardless of how many times he did it.

A few seconds later, the elevator jerked to a halt. The doors slid open with another 'ping'. Jace took a deep breath before stepping out, willing the queasy feeling away from his belly. He walked down the corridor, which had bright red walls, and made a left turn at the end of it. He stepped through the glass sliding doors and into the agency.

He nodded in greeting to the few agents he saw before heading straight for the optech room.

A brown-haired boy sat alone at the table. He narrowed his eyes at Jace when he entered the room before standing up.

"What's going on, Wayland?" the boy asked as Jace shut the doors with a remote control.

"I need your help, Carstairs."

Quickly, Jace told him the events that had transpired earlier in school.

"You placed a tracker on his thumb drive?" the boy exclaimed, looking half horrified and half incredulous. "Are you—"

"Yes, of course I'm aware of the risks involved. However, I'm ninety percent sure that he's not a secret agent or anything along those lines."

"Only _ninety_?"

The corners of Jace's lips lifted upward into a small smile as he shrugged. "What's life without risks? Can you locate the thumb drive?"

The boy headed over to one of the computers at the back of the back of the room and fired up a tracking program. A map of the area around the agency's location appeared on the screen. He typed in the coordinates of the area where Jace's high school was located at to narrow the scanning radius. A few seconds later, a blinking red dot appeared on the map.

"The school? Why would he leave it at the school?" Jace said in surprise. "Angel, can you get me a more specific location?"

The boy, Angel, hit a few keys in response. "The best I can tell you is that it's near the center of the school. I'll need to get closer to the school before I can pinpoint the exact location."

Jace nodded. "Let's go."

"I'll meet you in the garage. I'll need to load you up with optech," Angel said as he stood up and patted Jace's shoulder. "Are you absolutely sure about this?"

"I'm not about to sit around and do nothing while this douche blackmails innocent people."

"All right then. I'll see you in five," he said and rushed to the one of the many bulletproof glass cabinets to grab some gadgets.

TFS*

Angel pulled over a short distance away from the perimeter of the school. He got out of the driver's seat and into the back of the van where Jace was monitoring the signal of the tracking device.

"Nice outfit," Angel remarked as he sat down at the table and pulled out some gadgets from the drawer.

Jace had changed into more appropriate clothing for the mission. He wore a dark grey T-shirt under a black leather jacket, paired with a dark pair of jeans. He had also pulled on a pair of black leather gloves.

"Okay. Here's your communications unit," he said as he handed the device to Jace. It was a small flesh colored wireless ear bud. "There's a tracker in it so I can monitor your location from here. And here," Angel passed him an iPhone, "it has the latest code breaking software on it. Just in case."

Jace fished out his iPhone from his pocket and slid it over to Angel. "Don't want to risk getting it mixed up."

Angel put on his headphones and fired up a program on his laptop. "What's the school's IP address?"

Jace rattled off a series of numbers he'd memorized the day he enrolled at the school.

"Okay, I'm in the school's network. Obtaining the CCTV feeds... Looping them... Done."

Jace jammed a beanie on his head and got out of the van. He walked briskly to the main doors of the school and looked around surreptitiously.

"All clear, Boy Scout," came a voice through his comms unit.

"Boy Scout? What the fuck?" Jace said in annoyance, raising his left hand to his ear.

"Just get in, will you?"

Jace rolled his eyes. He reached for his watch and from the side of the clock face, pulled out two metal lock picks. He slid them into the lock on the doors and fiddled around with it. A few tense seconds later, there was a satisfying click.

He replaced the lock picks and slid into the school, making sure to close the doors behind him.

He raised his hand to his ear. "Base ops, this is Boy Scout. I'm in."

"Copy that, Boy Scout. The signal is originating fifty feet from your current location. It's in the northeast direction."

"The lockers. Of course," Jace muttered to himself and sped off in the northeast direction. He stopped when he reached the two rows of lockers lining the walls. "Which one?"

"Okay, take ten steps forward, Boy Scout," Angel told him.

Jace did so.

"Take one more... Okay, this is it. It's the one on your left."

"Damn it. I don't have anything to break his locker combination," Jace said as he fingered the lock.

"Don't fret it Boy Scout. What's the douche's name again? I can try to pull up his locker combination from the school records."

"Raphael Pearson. He's in my AP Chemistry class."

"Okay, I got his file. Damn, he even looks like a douche," Angel remarked a few short seconds later. "Okay, his locker combination is 24–16–30."

Jace proceeded to spin the dial and heard the telltale click of the lock unlocking. He swung the door open and gapped at the mess inside. "Fuck!"

He searched through his stuff carefully, not wanting to shift their positions too much. After a painstaking five minutes, Jace finally located the thumb drive at the very back of the locker.

"Got it!" he announced triumphantly, slamming the locker shut and spinning the dial of the lock. He sprinted out of the school, making sure to lock the doors behind himself.

"Good work, Jace," Angel congratulated him upon his return. He tapped a few keys on the keyboard. "The feed is unlooped. Okay. Shall we see what this blackmail material is?"

Jace shrugged. "I don't see why not."

Angel plugged the thumb drive into the laptop, making sure to scan for viruses first. "Damn. How many files does he have on this thing?"

"Click that one. The one that says Kaelie," Jace pointed.

Angel double clicked on it and saw several picture files and a video file. He clicked the video file.

Several loud moans and the sound of skin slapping against skin filled the van. Jace averted his eyes from the porno that was on the screen. Angel hurriedly closed the video.

"What the fuck was that?" Angel gasped, scanning the rest of the names on the many files in the thumb drive.

"It's a sordid sex tape," Jace replied, looking at the names as well.

Angel rolled his eyes. "That bastard. He filmed himself fucking all of these girls. And used it as blackmail material."

"Replay the video. We need to be sure it's him in it."

Angel obliged, and they watched the video uncomfortably.

"It's him all right. Look at that ring on his finger. I recognize it. And that mole on the back of his thigh," Jace confirmed.

Angel slammed the top of the laptop shut immediately and rubbed his eyes to get the image out of his head. "Do I even want to know how you know he has a mole on the back of his thigh?"

Jace rubbed his eyes as well. "I'm a spy. It's my job to know these things," he replied evasively. "Thank God we went ahead with the plan. Who knows how many poor girls he would have blackmailed with this? I may have to steal his computer tomorrow. He may have kept copies."

"I think we should investigate this Kaelie person as well. What's this 'package' they were talking about?"

"I'll do some snooping tomorrow. Have you got any more tracking devices? I may need them," Jace asked as he clambered into the driver's seat.

"I'll see if I can get you some more tomorrow. And here," Angel detached the tracking device from the thumb drive, "before you forget about it."

TFS*

Jace changed back into the outfit he was in before the operation in the back of the van before exiting it. Angel had dropped him off near the back entrance of Pandemonium. He glanced around to make sure no one was around before slipping back into the club.

He blended into the crowd of people, dancing a path to the entrance of the club, making sure to give some of the girls his signature panty-dropping smile in order to preserve his reputation. He was about to leave the club when he caught side of that fiery red hair.

He did a double take when he saw who she was with—the bastard who had several sordid sex tapes on a little thumb drive.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note: I am extremely sorry for the insanely late update. I have taken an almost year long break from writing due to my busy college schedule. I will get on with review replies asap. Thanks to those who have stuck with me and encouraged me not to give up on this story. <strong>

**So, how do y'all like Jace? Do you think he's too OOC? Let me know what you think.**

**Follow me on twitter if you want to chat - CassieFray**

**Until next time ~ Cassie**


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: The Mortal Instruments is owned by Cassandra Clare. I do not own anything except for the plot of The Falling Star. I'm just having fun and messing with the characters ;)**

* * *

><p><em>Previously on The Falling Star:<em>

_He did a double take when he saw who she was with – the bastard who had several sordid sex tapes on a little thumb drive._

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 4<strong>

Jace felt a bubble of rage in his chest at the sight of Clary in such close proximity to the sorry excuse for a guy. He strode over to them and draped a hand over Clary's shoulders and smiled at Raphael. He felt rather than heard her gasp in surprise.

"Thanks for keeping her entertained for me," he said, and proceeded to drag her out of the club.

"What do you think are you doing?" Clary protested, shoving him away the moment they were out, ignoring the curious looks from the people who were still queuing to get into the club.

"We'll talk in the car," Jace hissed, taking her hand and leading her to his Audi.

"If you think I'm going to get into a car with you, you are sadly mistaken." She struggled against his grip, but it was too strong.

He opened the door to the passenger's seat. "Just fucking get in," he growled in annoyance.

Clary glared at him defiantly.

Jace deliberated for a short moment before shoving her unceremoniously into the car and slamming the door shut. He hurried over to the driver's side and got in, locking the doors before she could even move to get out.

"Where's your house?" he asked, starting the engine.

"Seriously?" Clary gaped at him incredulously. She couldn't believe the nerve of this boy, staking a claim on her and then dragging her out of the club like she was a little kid and forcing her into his car like that.

"Oh, I'm serious as hell, baby. Now where's your address? If you don't tell me, I'll keep you prisoner in this tiny confined space until it's time for school," he promised.

"I don't know who you think you are, Jace fucking Wayland, but you can't just manhandle me and act as if you have any right to shove me into your car!"

"I have every right to take you away from that son of a bitch. Now put on your seatbelt," he ordered.

"I told you before. My name isn't 'little girl'. It's—"

"_Clary_. I know. Now put on your fucking seatbelt!" he snapped.

Clary felt a delicious tingle when he said her name. She felt her face heat up, and was grateful for the dimness in the car.

"Make me," she said defiantly, angry at herself for reacting in such a ridiculous way to him saying her name.

Jace turned his head to look at her, his lips curling into a smile as a glint appeared in his eyes. Clary barely had time to let out a gasp before he had caught both her wrists in one hand. He wiggled his fingers at her with his free hand, his grin wicked.

Her eyes widened as she realized his intention. "Don't you dare!"

Jace lowered his free hand to her side and started tickling her mercilessly, laughing as she squealed and tried in vain to squirm away from his fingers.

"Stop it," she pleaded breathlessly, half giggling and half squealing.

"Ticklish, aren't you?" he taunted, laughing at the way she reacted to his wriggling fingers against her side. "Say the words and I'll stop."

"Okay! Okay! I'll put on my seatbelt!" she surrendered.

A triumphant grin spread across his face as he stopped moving his fingers. He lowered his lips to her ear. "I win." His breath was warm against the shell of her ear.

Jace pulled back to look at her face. His grin dropped slowly from his face as he realized how close he was to her. She was pressed up against the door, and he was leaning over her, her wrists in his right hand and his left still against her side. He let his hand slide down to her waist as he met her eyes, and then his gaze dropped to her parted lips.

Clary was still breathing hard from the tickle attack. She belatedly realized their proximity when she saw Jace's smile disappear. She met his eyes and watched as they fell to her lips. Her eyes fell to his lips as they parted and he exhaled. Without any conscious thought, she moved closer to him and dragged her eyes back to his.

Jace inched closer to her as well, his hand clutching her waist tighter. Clary slipped her eyes shut.

Suddenly, the grip around her wrists and waist disappeared. She opened her eyes in confusion.

Jace was back in his seat, his fingers clenching the steering wheel so tightly that his knuckles were white. He worked on slowing his breathing. "Put on your seatbelt." His voice was hard and he stared unblinkingly in front.

Clary did as she was told as she continued to stare at him in confusion. Without another word, Jace backed out of the parking lot and sped off into the night.

"Address. What is it?"

Clary told him. After staring at him for several long moments, realization smacked her straight in the face. She remembered the girls he was dancing with the night before at the club. Though she didn't have a good look at their faces, she knew she couldn't hold a candle against them.

_Guys like him go for girls that are tall and beautiful. Not girls who are short, average, flat-chested and clumsy_, she thought to herself as she turned away from him and stared out the window. She wondered, as rejection seared through her veins, why the thought bothered her. _It must be his pretty face_, she decided, knowing fully well that his personality was anything but attractive.

Throughout the entire drive, he didn't even acknowledge her. It was as if he was alone in the car.

He pulled up outside her house some ten minutes later. He threw his head back against the head rest and squeezed his eyes shut.

"Thanks for the ride back," she mumbled without looking at him. She moved to get out of the car.

"Clary," Jace said, turning to face her.

She paused.

"Stay away from Raphael."

"Why?" She turned around to face him.

"He may seem charming, but he's not the person he appears to be. So, please," he reached out as if to touch her hand, but changed his mind and pulled it back. "Keep your distance from him."

"He's not who he appears to be? What does that mean?"

"Trust me on this, Clary. He's dangerous."

"Dangerous how?"

Jace hesitated. "Let's just leave it at that."

"Well, thanks for the warning, but I'll judge him for myself." And with that, she let herself out of the car and headed into her house.

TFS*

"Dammit!" a voice hissed from somewhere to his right. Jace kept his gaze on his locker and continued extracting books as if he hadn't heard anything.

A locker door slammed shut and an extremely irate Raphael stalked past him. Jace bit the inside of his cheek to keep from grinning. He shut his own locker and turned to head for his next class, nearly bumping into a nervous-looking Kaelie.

"Hey. Are you all right?" he asked.

Kaelie jumped a little and clutched the envelope she was holding tighter to herself. It was a small movement, but Jace noticed it nonetheless. Was that the package Raphael was referring to?

"Yes, I'm fine. Why do you ask?" Kaelie said quickly. Almost too quickly.

"You don't look so good. Is there something wrong?"

"No, everything's just fine. Now, if you'll excuse me —" She turned on her heel and walked away abruptly.

Jace headed back to his car and made a call to Angel.

"Did you save the school records from last night's mission?"

"Good morning to you too, Jace," Angel replied sarcastically.

"I don't have time for this Angel. I think I just saw the package."

Angel became serious immediately. "You saw it? What is it?"

"I just saw Kaelie holding a brown A4 sized envelope. That may be it. I'll try to swipe it when I have the chance."

"I did save a copy of the school's records. I suppose you'll be wanting Kaelie's schedule for today?"

Jace heard a faint tapping noise in the background.

"Got it. First period gym, second period biology—"

"First period gym! That's perfect!"

"Wait wait wait wait! What the heck do you plan to do? You can't possibly sneak into the girls' locker room with at least three CCTVs to catch you in the act! And what makes you think she will bring it there with her?"

"I'll manage. And no one wouldn't leave something of great importance lying around. She will carry it with her," Jace said confidently.

"You're downright lucky I decided to come down just in case," Angel added smugly.

"Shit. Seriously?" Jace whipped his head around and his eyes searched for the silver van from last night.

"Searching for a van?" Angel chuckled.

Jace scowled. "No," he lied. "I'm waiting for you to give me the okay."

"Yeah yeah," Angel teased. There was a faint tapping sound in the background again. "Do you still have your comms unit from last night?"

Jace reached over and pulled open the glovebox, rummaging around inside. "Got it."

"Switching to comms," Angel replied, putting his phone away. "Okay, start walking back into the school now, and go to the bathroom nearest to the girls' locker room. I'll loop the camera feed once you're in there."

Jace did as he was told, making sure all the bathroom stalls were unoccupied. "Done."

"Okay, I've looped the feed. Boyscout, you were right. It's with her. The package," Angel said.

"Of course it is," Jace replied smugly. "Has gym started yet?"

"Yes, and the coast is clear. Kaelie's locker number is 670."

Jace hurried out of the bathroom and rushed into the locker room. "670... 670..." he muttered to himself. "Got it!"

"The locker combination is 27-6-18. I repeat. 27-6-18. Got it?"

"27-6-18. Got it," Jace confirmed.

He worked on spinning the dial, hoping to get it on his first try. The door opened with a satisfying 'click'. He pulled out the brown envelope and replaced it with an empty one.

"Is the coast clear?"

"Incoming in twenty seconds. Go for it!"

Jace dashed madly toward the boys' bathroom and shut the door just as the person Angel saw on the CCTV feed turned the corner.

"Good job, Boyscout," Angel praised him. "Are you able to come outside so we can see it together?"

"Sure. I'll ditch school for the day," Jace replied, placing the envelope into the inside of his jacket.

"Hang on. Let me unloop the feed... Okay go!"

Jace left the bathroom and walked at a measured pace to the parking lot.

"Leave the school and make a left turn. I'm in the maroon van."

Jace followed the instructions and rapped thrice on the sliding door of the van. Angel slid it open immediately and stepped aside to let Jace in.

"Where is it? Where is it?" he asked eagerly, almost pulling Jace into the van in his haste.

Jace slid the door shut and yanked the envelope out of his jacket. "Right here." He ripped it open and tipped it upside down. Out fell several sheets of paper and a stack of cash.

"These look like..." Angel trailed off.

"Answers. To a History paper," Jace finished.

Angel looked from the papers to the stack of fifty dollar bills. "What in the world..." he trailed off.

"That motherfucker!" Jace slammed his fist onto the table.

"We've got to do something. We can't just let him get away with this."

"Did you manage to get a list of all the girls in those videos?"

"Not yet. I'll get on it."

"I'll help you out." Jace grabbed a chair and moved to sit at the table.

TFS*

"Fifty girls. Can you believe that?" Jace threw his head back and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Sure. Why not? You've fucked at least twice that number since your junior year," Angel shrugged.

"What the fuck?" Jace leapt up and leaned over the other boy. "I certainly have not! And even if I did, I didn't tape them."

"Christ! You've really slept with that many girls?" Angel widened his eyes in shock.

"We're in the tens for God's sake," Jace growled, sitting back down in his chair. "Okay, so now we can turn this son of a bitch in."

"Not yet," Angel piqued, leaning back in his chair and looked thoughtfully at his partner.

"Not yet? What do you mean? We've got the tapes. It's obviously him in those videos."

"Without his face or any distinctive feature, it's going to be difficult to prove it's him in those videos. It could be anyone. And we don't have evidence that he's committing blackmail," Angel pointed out.

"Looks like we'll have to snoop around his house after all," Jace shrugged.

TFS*

"Doesn't look like anyone's home," Angel said after pressing the doorbell thrice.

"You disable the alarm. I'll pick the lock," Jace said and proceeded to get his lockpicks. Glancing around to make sure no one was in sight, he got to work on the lock.

"C'mon, c'mon,c'mon," Angel chanted to himself and announced triumphantly a few minutes later when he got the job done.

"Almost... almost... Got it!" Jace pushed the door open and slid into the house.

"Let's split up. I'll look around here and you go upstairs," Angel suggested. "Your comms unit still with you? Good," he added when his partner nodded.

Jace headed upstairs quickly and started searching the rooms carefully.

"Nothing in the master bedroom. Did you find anything?"

"Not yet. I did find his porn collection hidden in some DVD cases though," Angel said in disgust.

"Seriously dude. The way you regard sex and the like makes me feel like you have some aversion to it or something," Jace shook his head.

He entered the bedroom across the hall and instinctively guessed it was Raphael's. He searched through the stack of DVDs and found nothing of interest.

He then looked through the drawers and found a stash of weed and more brown envelopes like the one he'd swiped from Kaelie.

"Boyscout, we have a problem. I think Raphael just came home and he has a red head with him. I'll go out the back and move the van there," Angel warned him as he hurried out to the back door.

"Dammit!" Jace grabbed the envelopes and the MacBook sitting on the desk. He strode over to the windows just as he heard the front door open. The jump didn't look too far.

He shrugged his jacket off and wrapped the items securely with it. He then dropped the bundle onto some bushes in the garden below him. He was about to make the jump when he heard Raphael addressing the red head he had downstairs.

"Oh fucking crap."

TFS*

"Wow. This is a really nice house, Raphael," Clary said admiringly.

"Thanks, Raphael grinned, revealing a dimple on one side of his cheek. "Have a seat. Do you want anything to drink?"

"What do you have?"

"I think I have beer, vodka, cherry coke and water," he shrugged.

"Water, please. Thanks," Clary said with a smile and proceeded to take a seat on the white leather couch.

Raphael shuffled off and she heard the muffled sounds of him preparing their drinks. She was about to get more comfortable when a blond-haired guy stepped out from behind the wall to her left. Her mouth fell open in surprise.

Sensing that she was about to speak, Jace hurried up to her and covered her mouth with her hand. He bent down so that his mouth was next to her ear.

"Hush," he whispered, and leapt over the back of the couch and disappeared from sight just as Raphael returned.

"Here," he said, handing her a glass of water. "Shall we get started with the project?"

Clary quickly masked her shocked expression and forced out a smile. "Sure," she said, closing her fingers around the glass.

"C'mon, let's go to my room," he said and gestured to the stairs.

"Okay," she shrugged.

Raphael led the way and just as she was about to ascend the stairs, a hand caught hers and pulled her back.

Jace put a finger to his lips and started to head upstairs.

"What are you doing?" she hissed.

Jace quickly ducked out of sight from the stairway.

"Saving your ass," he hissed back.

"Clary?" Raphael called and peered down at her from the second floor.

"Coming," she replied and proceeded to head upstairs.

"Don't you dare!" Jace whisper-shouted at her.

"Watch me."

When they reached the second floor, Jace suddenly overtook Clary, having ascended the stairs quickly and soundlessly, and threw a piece of white cloth over the other boy. And then, he proceeded to slam his elbow into the back of Raphael's neck.

"Come on, we have to leave," Jace took her hand.

Clary gaped at the boy on the floor. "What did you just do?"

"I knocked him out. He'll be awake soon. Come on, we have to leave," he tugged at her hand.

She continued to gape at Raphael, her feet rooted to the floor. "I don't understand. Why are you doing this?"

"I'll explain everything later. Now come."

She hesitated.

"Damn it," he said harshly and scooped her up.

Clary's eyes flew to his in surprise when she felt her feet lose contact with the floor. She threw her hands around him instinctively.

"I can walk," she protested.

"Yeah, yeah," he retorted sarcastically.

He set her down once they stepped out of the house and rushed over to the rose bushes to grab the bundle he dropped earlier.

"Come on," he called out to her as he raced to where Angel was waiting.

"You're taking her along with us? What about the equipment in the back?" Angel screamed at him through his earpiece.

"Put up the divider. She'll sit in front."

"Jace, who are you talking to? What's going on?"

"Later. I promise I'll explain everything later. Now get into the van," he said and ushered Angel out of the front seat.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Angel hissed.

"I'm not taking her to the agency, you idiot. I'm dropping her off at her house. Now get in the back."

"Nice. You get to sit with the pretty girl and I get to sit with the computers?"

Jace rolled his eyes and tossed him Raphael's computer. "Look through that on the way there, will you?" He headed back to the driver's seat and paused at the door. "Wait. You think she's pretty?"

Angel waved him off and slid into the back.

TFS*

"So, what did you find?"

"It's all here. The original footage for all his sex tapes, and yes, his face is in them," Angel replied as they walked to their superior's office. "Your mom is going to throw a shit fit," he added.

"Don't I know it."

"Well, I'm glad that you know that, Jace Wayland," a voice said from behind them.

The two boys whirled around, shock evident in their expressions.

Jace looked at the woman who addressed him and stiffened his posture instinctively. "Mom."

* * *

><p><strong>Author's note: I apologize once again for the very very long duration between updates. I am writing whenever I have spare time (which sad to say isn't much time at all). Thanks again for those who have stuck with and have been patient with me. I really appreciate every single one of you. :)<strong>

**Until my next update ~ Cassie**


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